The one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death has brought out
the worst in President Obama’s supporters. The football spiking and
victory dancing has spun out of control. However, the more liberals
hype Mr. Obama’s supposed role in the process, the less relevant he
seems to be.

The Obama re-election campaign has come under fire for questioning
whether presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would
have ordered the bin Laden mission. Recent revelations about the
operation show it wasn’t exactly a profile in courage for Mr. Obama.
According to a memo from then-director of the Central Intelligence
Agency Leon Panetta, obtained by Time magazine, the most critical
decisions were delegated to Adm. William McRaven as the head of Joint
Special Operations Command. “The timing, operational decision-making
and control are in Adm. McRaven’s hands,” Mr. Panetta wrote.

All Mr. Obama did was approve the “risk profile,” the broad framework
of the operation. Had things gone wrong, the buck would have landed
on Adm. McRaven’s head. In any case, it is unseemly to talk about the
president’s “courage” when the real courage was demonstrated by the
special operations forces who actually undertook the mission. They
are the men with the claim to bravery, not anyone sitting safely in
Washington, D.C.

The premise behind the notion that the bin Laden raid decision was
a “gutsy call” is that Mr. Obama would have paid a political price
had the mission failed. Some liken it to the 1980 “Desert One”
Iranian hostage-rescue-mission fiasco that harmed President Carter’s
re-election effort. This is false. Had the bin Laden takedown failed,
there would have been no political price because no one would have
known about it. The mission would have been just another of the many
secret government operations kept under wraps. Because there was no
downside risk - at least not to Mr. Obama personally - the decision
cannot legitimately be called gutsy. Politically, it was a gimme.

The bin Laden takedown hardly makes the case for re-election. It was
a good day for America, something dedicated members of the
intelligence community and the military had been working toward long
before Mr. Obama appeared on the scene. It also is something that
cannot be repeated. The way Obama campaign operatives are hyping the
event makes it look like it is the only significant achievement in
foreign affairs during Mr. Obama’s tenure in office, which in fact it
is.

Barack Obama is no Jimmy Carter. Despite being a general joke as
president, the Georgia peanut farmer did broker the historic Camp
David Peace Accords between Israel and Egypt. And Mr. Carter did the
honorable but not easy thing when he called off the Iranian hostage-
rescue mission with full knowledge that it would harm his re-election
chances. That decision was not only more courageous than the bin
Laden authorization, it was gutsier than any decision Mr. Obama has
made in office on any issue at all.